Contributor
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Strategy
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Deb Weissman
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Object Descriptions:
- Have each child or group bring in an object that is interesting to them. Ask them to keep the object a secret from the rest of the class and even you!
- Using their 5 senses, students brainstorm a list of describing details.
- Challenge them to write a description of the object, being careful not to mention the object's name or use.
- Students share their descriptions and challenge the class to guess what the object is.
- After the activity, discuss which descriptions were more successful, more interesting, etc.
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Deb Weissman
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Supporting details:
- When students are analyzing paragraphs for idea development, have them highlight the main idea (or topic sentence) with a highlighter or yellow crayon.
- Ask them to underline the details which support the topic with the same color. This gives them a strong visual cue as to whether they have relevant details, and how strongly their ideas are supported.
- This can be extended to a multi-paragraph piece by highlighting the thesis paragraph and circling the supporting paragraphs and then highlighting within the supporting paragraphs, completing the first activity.
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Debbie Rastin
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- It seems that in order to develop written ideas, we need to develop the oral ideas first. Sharing time (show and tell) is a good time to have students think carefully about exactly what information they want to impart to their peers.
- Have a Treasure Day where each child brings in something special to them. Let them share their thoughts orally, and then write about them. (Good literature to do with this:Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox.)
- Brainstorm a list of topics to write about early in the year. Post the list in a prominent spot.
- Teach how to use story plans and graphic organizers in shared writing. Have sets of different organizers available for the children to use.
- Read different versions of fairy tales. Compare how different authors write about the same topic. Determine the important ideas all the stories share, and then write a story retelling.
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